Council Staffers Withheld Budget Documents From Lawmakers

New York City Council staff deliberately withheld a number of budget documents from lawmakers for more than six hours on the night the council voted to approve the city’s financial plan last week, people familiar with the matter said Thursday.

The delay further prevented council members from exercising oversight of the city’s $75 billion budget, the people said.

The paperwork covering the expense and contract budget, for example, was ready for review at about 5 p.m. on June 25th, people familiar with the matter said. But the council’s staff decided not to share those documents with lawmakers, at that hour, under the theory that “you don’t slow drip the budget,” one person said.

Instead, council staff waited until all of the documents covering the budget were completed and printed, releasing the full packet to council members at some point after 11 p.m. that night. The council finished voting about 1:20 a.m. the next day.

In an article published in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, some council members and several government watchdogs called for greater transparency in the final stages of the budget process, saying the council and the public should have at least 24 hours to read the budget documents before the council votes. In Albany, the state budget must be published three days in advance of a vote.

Aides to Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Mayor Bill de Blasio said they would be exploring ways to improve transparency and oversight in the future. Under current policy, neither the council nor the mayor’s office makes public the negotiated budget that the council adopts before the vote.

“We’re always looking into ways to make the budget process more efficient and transparent,” Eric Koch, a spokesman for Ms. Mark-Viverito, said.

Mr. Koch said he didn’t know Thursday afternoon whether Ms. Mark-Viverito was aware that some documents were available earlier in the day on June 25th. But he stressed that the speaker is looking to make improvements.